On a certain Sabbath day, Jesus and His disciples were passing through
the corn fields (Matt. XII:1; Mark II:23; Luke VI:1). Luke says that it
was "the second Sabbath after the first," probably calling "the first"
the one on which Jesus preached in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke
IV:16). The disciples, being hungry, began to pluck and eat the ears of
corn. The Pharisees object that they "do that which is not lawful to do
on the Sabbath day." Jesus cites the example of David eating the
shew-bread in the house of God, and says that if they understood the
meaning of the saying, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice," they would
not have condemned the guiltless. "And He said unto them, The Sabbath
was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man
is Lord also of the Sabbath" (Mark II:27).
On another Sabbath day (Luke VI:1, 6), a man with a withered hand was in
the synagogue, and the scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus, "Is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath days? That they might accuse him." Jesus cites
the case of a sheep falling into a pit on the Sabbath day, and says:
"Wherefore it is lawful to _do well_ on the Sabbath day." Thereupon He
restores the man's hand "whole" (Matt. XII:10-13).
In Mark and Luke, Jesus asks the question of the scribes and Pharisees
as to whether it was lawful to _do good_ on the Sabbath day. "But they
held their peace. And when He had looked round about on them with anger,
being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, He saith unto the man,
stretch forth thine hand" (Mark III:1-5; Luke VI:6-10).
Again Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath and cures a
woman of a "spirit of infirmity" of eighteen years' continuance. The
"ruler of the synagogue" objects "with indignation" to this healing on
the Sabbath, because "there are six days in which men ought to work."
Jesus says: "Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath
loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering"
(Luke XIII:11-17).
Another similar case occurred when Jesus "went into the house of one of
the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath," and healed a certain
man "which had the dropsy." Here He cites against the Pharisees the
illustration of an ass or an ox falling into a pit on the Sabbath day
(Luke XIV:1-6).
John records two more cases of cures being performed on the Sabbath day,
and of the Pharisees objecting to them as unlawful acts (John V:1-17;
IX:1-38. See John VII:23).[30]